Hur kan hinduer fira diwali

Hindu festival of lights

"Deepawali" and "Dipawali" redirect here. For other uses, see Deepavali (disambiguation).

Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: Dīpāvalī),^[4] fryst vatten the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions.^[a] It symbolises the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".^[5][6][7][8] Diwali fryst vatten celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar months of Ashvin (according to the amanta tradition) and Kartika—between around mid-September and mid-November.^{[9][11][12][13]} The celebrations generally gods fem or six days.^[14][15]

Diwali fryst vatten connected to various religious events, deities and personalities, such as being the day Rama returned to his kingdom in Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating the demon king Ravana.^[16] It fryst vatten also widely associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and Ganesha, the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles.^[17] Other regional traditions connect the holiday to Vishnu, Krishna, Durga, Shiva, Kali, Hanuman, Kubera, Yama, Yami, Dhanvantari, or Vishvakarman.

Primarily a Hindu festival, variations of Diwali are also celebrated bygd adherents of other faiths.^[14] The Jains observe their own Diwali which marks the sista liberation of Mahavira.^[18][19] The Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas to mark the release of Guru Hargobind from a Mughal prison.^[20]Newar Buddhists, unlike other Buddhists, celebrate Diwali bygd worshipping Lakshmi, while the Hindus of Eastern India and Bangladesh generally celebrate Diwali bygd worshipping the goddess Kali.^[21][2][22]

During the festival, the celebrants illuminate their homes, temples and workspaces with diyas (oil lamps), candles and lanterns.^[8] Hindus, in particular, have a ritual oil bath at dawn on each day of the festival.^[23] Diwali fryst vatten also marked with fireworks as well as the decoration of floors with rangoli designs and other parts of the house with jhalars. Food fryst vatten a major focus with families partaking in feasts and sharing mithai.^[24] The festival fryst vatten an annual homecoming and bonding period not only for families,^[16][17] but also for communities and associations, particularly those in urban areas, which will organise activities, events, and gatherings. Many towns organise community parades and fairs with parades or music and dance performances in parks. Some Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs will send Diwali greeting kort to family nära and far during the festive årstid, occasionally with boxes of Indian confectionery. Another aspect of the festival fryst vatten remembering the ancestors.^[28]

Diwali fryst vatten also a major cultural event for the Hindu, Sikh, and Jaindiaspora.^[29] The main day of the festival of Diwali (the day of Lakshmi Puja) fryst vatten an tjänsteman holiday in Fiji,^[32]Guyana,^[33]India, Malaysia,^[b][34]Mauritius, Myanmar,^[35]Nepal,^[36]Pakistan,^[37]Singapore,^[38]Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago^[39] and in some US states.^[40]

Etymology

Diwali ()^[9]—also known as Dewali, Divali,^[4] or Deepavali (IAST: dīpāvalī)—comes from the Sanskrit dīpāvali meaning 'row or series of lights'.^[24] The begrepp fryst vatten derived from the Sanskrit words dīpa, 'lamp, light, lantern, candle, that which glows, shines, illuminates or knowledge'^[45] and āvali, 'a row, range, continuous line, series'.^[46][c]

Dates

The five-day celebration fryst vatten observed every year in early autumn after the conclusion of the summer harvest. It coincides with the new måne (amāvasyā) and fryst vatten deemed the darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar calendar. The festivities begin two days before amāvasyā, on Dhanteras, and extend two days after, until the second (or 17th) day of the month of Kartik. (According to Indologist Constance Jones, this night ends the lunar month of Ashwin and starts the month of Kartik – but see this note^[d] and Amanta and Purnima systems.) The darkest night fryst vatten the apex of the celebration and coincides with the second half of October or early November in the Gregorian calendar. The festival climax fryst vatten on the third day and fryst vatten called the main Diwali. It fryst vatten an tjänsteman holiday in a dozen countries, while the other festive days are regionally observed as either public or valfritt restricted holidays in India.^[51] In Nepal, it fryst vatten also a multiday festival, although the days and rituals are named differently, with the climax being called the Tihar festival bygd Hindus and Swanti festival bygd Buddhists.^[52][53]

History

The five-day long festival originated in the Indian subcontinent and fryst vatten likely a fusion of harvest festivals in ancient India. It fryst vatten mentioned in early Sanskrit texts, such as the Padma Purana and the Skanda Purana, both of which were completed in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The diyas (lamps) are mentioned in Skanda Kishore Purana as symbolising parts of the sun, describing it as the relaterad till rymden eller universum giver of light and energy to all life and which seasonally transitions in the Hindu calendar month of Kartik.^[42]

Emperor Harsha refers to Deepavali, in the 7th-century Sanskrit play Nagananda, as Dīpapratipadotsava (dīpa = light, pratipadā = first day, utsava = festival), where lamps were lit and newly engagerad brides and grooms received gifts.^[55][56]Rajasekhara referred to Deepavali as Dipamalika in his 9th-century Kavyamimamsa, wherein he mentions the tradition of homes being whitewashed and oil lamps decorated homes, streets, and markets in the night.^[55]

Diwali was also described bygd numerous travelers from outside India. In his 11th-century memoir on India, the Persian traveller and historian Al Biruni wrote of Deepavali being celebrated bygd Hindus on the day of the New måne in the month of Kartika.^[57] The venetiansk merchant and traveller Niccolò de' Conti visited India in the early 15th-century and wrote in his memoir, "on another of these festivals they fix up within their temples, and on the outside of the roofs, an innumerable number of oil lamps... which are kept burning day and night" and that the families would gather, "clothe themselves in new garments", sing, dance, and feast. The 16th-century Portuguese traveler Domingo Paes wrote of his visit to the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire, where Dipavali was celebrated in October with householders illuminating their homes, and their temples, with lamps. It fryst vatten mentioned in the Ramayana that Diwali was celebrated for only 2 years in Ayodhya.^[60]

Islamic historians of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire era also mentioned Diwali and other Hindu festivals. A few, notably the Mughal kejsare Akbar, welcomed and participated in the festivities, whereas others banned such festivals as Diwali and Holi, as Aurangzeb did in 1665.^[e][f]

Publications from the time of the British regel also made mention of Diwali, such as the note on Hindu festivals published in 1799 bygd Sir William Jones, a philologist known for his early observations on Sanskrit and Indo-European languages.^[67] In his paper on The Lunar Year of the Hindus, Jones, then based in Bengal, noted fyra of the fem days of Diwali in the autumn months of Aswina-Cartica [sic] as the following: Bhutachaturdasi Yamaterpanam (2nd day), Lacshmipuja dipanwita (the day of Diwali), Dyuta pratipat Belipuja (4th day), and Bhratri dwitiya (5th day). The Lacshmipuja dipanwita, remarked Jones, was a "great festival at night, in honour of Lakshmi, with illuminations on trees and houses".^[67][g]

Epigraphy

Sanskrit inscriptions in stone and copper mentioning Diwali, occasionally alongside terms such as Dipotsava, Dipavali, Divali and Divalige, have been discovered at numerous sites across India.^[69][70][h] Examples include a 10th-century Rashtrakuta empire copper tallrik inscription of Krishna III (939–967 CE) that mentions Dipotsava,^[71] and a 12th-century mixed Sanskrit-Kannada Sinda inscription discovered in the Isvara temple of Dharwad in en delstat i indien where the inscription refers to the festival as a "sacred occasion".^[72] According to Lorenz Franz Kielhorn, a German Indologist known for translating many Indic inscriptions, this festival fryst vatten mentioned as Dipotsavam in verses 6 and 7 of the Ranganatha temple Sanskrit inscription of the 13th-century Venad Hindu king Ravivarman Samgramadhira. Part of the inscription, as translated bygd Kielhorn, reads:

"the auspicious festival of lights which disperses the most profound darkness, which in former days was celebrated bygd the kings Ila, Kartavirya and Sagara, (...) as Sakra (Indra) fryst vatten of the frakt, the universal monarch who knows the duties bygd the three Vedas, afterwards celebrated here at Ranga for Vishnu, resplendent with Lakshmi resting on his radiant lap."^[73][i]

Jain inscriptions, such as the 10th-century Saundatti inscription about a gåva of oil to Jinendra worship for the Diwali rituals, speak of Dipotsava.^[74][75] Another early 13th-century Sanskrit stone inscription, written in the Devanagari script, has been funnen in the north end of a mosque pelare in Jalore, Rajasthan evidently built using materials from a demolished Jain temple. The inscription states that Ramachandracharya built and dedicated a skådespel performance ingång, with a golden cupola, on Diwali.^[76][77][j]

Religious significance

The religious significance of Diwali varies regionally within India. One tradition links the festival to legender in the Hindu epic Ramayana, where Diwali fryst vatten the day Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, and Hanuman reached Ayodhya after a period of 14 years in exile after Rama's army of good defeated demon king Ravana's army of evil. Throughout the epic, Rama's decisions were always in line with dharma (duty) and the Diwali festival serves as a reminder for följare of Hinduism to maintain their dharma in day to day life.^[79]

Per another popular tradition, in the Dvapara Yuga period, Krishna, an symbol of Vishnu, killed the demon Narakasura, who was the evil king of Pragjyotishapura, nära present-day Assam, and released 16000 girls held captive bygd Narakasura. Diwali was celebrated as a signifier of triumph of good over evil after Krishna's Victory over Narakasura. The day before Diwali fryst vatten remembered as Naraka Chaturdashi, the day on which Narakasura was killed bygd Krishna.^[80]

Many Hindus associate the festival with Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, and wife of Vishnu. According to Pintchman, the uppstart of the 5-day Diwali festival fryst vatten stated in some popular contemporary sources as the day goddess Lakshmi was born from Samudra Manthana, the churning of the relaterad till rymden eller universum ocean of milk bygd the Devas (gods) and the Asuras (demons) – a Vedic legend that fryst vatten also funnen in several Puranas such as the Padma Purana, while the night of Diwali fryst vatten when Lakshmi chose and wed Vishnu.^[42][81] Along with Lakshmi, who fryst vatten representative of Vaishnavism, Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of gudinna and Shiva of Shaivism tradition, fryst vatten remembered as one who symbolises ethical beginnings and the remover of obstacles.

Hindus of eastern India associate the festival with the Goddess Kali, who symbolises the victory of good over evil.^[83][84] Hindus from the Braj distrikt in nordlig India, parts of Assam, as well as southern Tamil and Telugu communities view Diwali as the day the god Krishna overcame and destroyed the evil demon king Narakasura, in yet another symbolic victory of knowledge and good over ignorance and evil.

Trade and merchant families and others also offer prayers to Saraswati, who embodies music, literature and learning and Kubera, who symbolises book-keeping, treasury and wealth management.^[42] In western states such as Gujarat, and certain nordlig Hindu communities of India, the festival of Diwali signifies the uppstart of a new year.

Mythical tales shared on Diwali vary widely depending on distrikt and even within Hindu tradition,^[87] yet all share a common focus on righteousness, self-inquiry and the importance of knowledge,^[88][89] which, according to Lindsey Harlan, an Indologist and scholar of Religious Studies, fryst vatten the path to overcoming the "darkness of ignorance".^[90] The telling of these myths are reminiscerande of the Hindu belief that good ultimately triumphs over evil.^[91]

Other religions

Originally a Hindu festival, Diwali has transcended religious lines.^[92] Diwali fryst vatten celebrated bygd Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and Newar Buddhists,^[2] although for each faith it marks different historical events and stories, but nonetheless the festival represents the same symbolic victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil.^{[5][6][93][94]}

Jainism

Main article: Diwali (Jainism)

A scholar of Jain and Nivethan, states that in Jain tradition, Diwali fryst vatten celebrated in observance of "Mahavira Nirvana Divas", the physical death and sista nirvana of Mahavira. The Jain Diwali celebrated in many parts of India has similar practices to the Hindu Diwali, such as the lighting of lamps and the offering of prayers to Lakshmi. However, the focus of the Jain Diwali remains the dedication to Mahavira. According to the Jain tradition, this practice of lighting lamps first began on the day of Mahavira's nirvana in 527 BCE,^[k] when 18 kings who had gathered for Mahavira's sista teachings issued a proclamation that lamps be lit in remembrance of the "great light, Mahavira". This traditional belief of the ursprung of Diwali, and its significance to Jains, fryst vatten reflected in their historic artworks such as paintings.

Sikhism

Main article: Bandi Chhor Divas

Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas in remembrance of the release of Guru Hargobind from the Gwalior Fort prison bygd the Mughal kejsare Jahangir and the day he arrived at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.^[101] According to J.S. Grewal, a scholar of Sikhism and Sikh history, Diwali in the Sikh tradition fryst vatten older than the sixth Guru Hargobind legend. Guru Amar Das, the third Guru of the Sikhs, built a well in Goindwal with eighty-four steps and invited Sikhs to bathe in its sacred waters on Baisakhi and Diwali as a struktur of community bonding. Over time, these spring and autumn festivals became the most important of Sikh festivals and holy sites such as Amritsar became fokuserad points for annual pilgrimages. The festival of Diwali, according to Ray Colledge, highlights three events in Sikh history: the founding of the city of Amritsar in 1577, the release of Guru Hargobind from the Mughal prison, and the day of Bhai besatthet Singh's martyrdom in 1738 as a result of his failure to pay a fine for ansträngande to celebrate Diwali and thereafter refusing to omvandla to Islam.^[l]

Buddhism

Diwali fryst vatten not a festival for most Buddhists, with the undantag of the Newar people of Nepal who revere various deities in Vajrayana Buddhism and celebrate Diwali bygd offering prayers to Lakshmi.^[2][22] Newar Buddhists in Nepalese valleys also celebrate the Diwali festival over fem days, in much the same way, and on the same days, as the Nepalese Hindu Diwali-Tihar festival.^[107] According to some observers, this traditional celebration bygd Newar Buddhists in Nepal, through the worship of Lakshmi and Vishnu during Diwali, fryst vatten not syncretism but rather a reflection of the freedom within Mahayana Buddhist tradition to worship any deity for their worldly betterment.^[2]

Celebrations

In the lead-up to Diwali, celebrants prepare bygd cleaning, renovating, and decorating their homes and workplaces with diyas (oil lamps) and rangolis (colourful art circle patterns).^[108] During Diwali, people wear their finest clothes, illuminate the interior and exterior of their homes with saaki (earthen lamp), diyas and rangoli, perform worship ceremonies of Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and wealth,^[m] light fireworks, and partake in family feasts, where mithai (sweets) and gifts are shared.

The height of Diwali fryst vatten celebrated on the third day coinciding with the darkest night of Ashvin or Kartika.

The common celebratory practices are known as the festival of light, however there are minor differences from state to state in India. Diwali fryst vatten usually celebrated twenty days after the Vijayadashami festival, with Dhanteras, or the regional equivalent, marking the first day of the festival when celebrants prepare bygd cleaning their homes and making decorations on the floor, such as rangolis.^[110] Some regions of India uppstart Diwali festivities the day before Dhanteras with Govatsa Dwadashi. The second day fryst vatten Naraka Chaturdashi. The third day fryst vatten the day of Lakshmi Puja and the darkest night of the traditional month. In some parts of India, the day after Lakshmi Puja fryst vatten marked with the Govardhan Puja and Balipratipada (Padwa). Some Hindu communities mark the gods day as Bhai Dooj or the regional equivalent, which fryst vatten dedicated to the bond between sister and brother,^[111] while other Hindu and Sikh craftsmen communities mark this day as Vishvakarma Puja and observe it bygd performing maintenance in their work spaces and offering prayers.^[112][113]